A Quick Guide To Watch Abbreviations.

When scrolling through sites there are a number of abbreviations used by dealers and private sellers which often appear like a foreign language. Here is a guide to help you understand listings and descriptons to ensure you don't end up baffled when talking about timepieces.

NOS

This stands for 'New Old Stock'. Although seemingly contrasting words, this is used to describe a second hand watch which has never been worn, therefore an old watch in new condition.

BNIB

This stands for 'Brand New In Box'. Simple.

GP, and GF

These are very common abbreviations and stand for gold plated and gold filled respectively.

Cal

'Cal' is simply short for caliber and usually comes before the caliber number. E.g. a movement could be an automatic ETA cal 2824.

GMT

Technically this stands for Greenwich Mean Time but essentially stands for a watch capable of showing two seperate time zones.

AR

This is less common thugh you may see this when crystals are described as it stands for 'Anti Reflective', e.g .AR coated sapphire crystal.

COSC

This represents Swiss chronometer certification and technically stands for 'Controle Officiel Suisse Des Chronomeres'- in English this translates to 'Official Swiss Chronometer Testing'.

There are also a number of military markings, most commonly GSTP (General Service Time Piece' WWW- Wristwatch Waterproof and many others. Miltary markings however require a whole new blog post!.